Conventional practice for use of rotary down-hole equipment within a well generally involves use of a large hoisting capacity rig with torque or pumping capacity, coiled tubing operations and/or electric line operations.
Use of high torque rotary equipment within well bores generally requires the use of large drilling rigs to hoist jointed tubular conduits to and from a well, with rotating equipment used to turn the jointed conduits, or a fluid motor at the end of the jointed conduits being used to pump fluid to rotate downhole equipment. These types of conventional operations generally provide the highest lifting and torque capability for downhole equipment rotation.
Alternatively, coiled tubing operations can be performed, which involve use of large reels of flexible tubing, that require large hoisting equipment to support an injector head used to reel the flexible tubing in and out of a well, while pumps are used to circulate fluids through a fluid motor and rotate equipment downhole. Conventional coiled tubing operations generally provide less torque and lifting capacity than use of drilling rigs.
Finally, conventional practice may also involve the use of an electric line unit to place an electric motor downhole for relatively low torque rotary equipment operations, such as cutting tubing with sharp knives. Electric line operations are generally not suitable for hoisting or jarring heavy equipment in or out of a well, as the connection to downhole equipment or electrical wires within their braided wire arrangement may fail.
The conventional use of non-electrical braided wire and slick wire applications do not generally support rotation of downhole equipment, as wires may fail if twisted and are intended primarily for hoisting equipment in or out of a well and/or jarring equipment axially upward or downward as required.
Additionally, while grease heads may not offer sufficient sealing capacity against braided wires, slick wire applications are generally capable of working in higher pressure wells than braided wire applications.
While drilling rigs provide the highest resource level for lifting capacity and torque, they are the most expensive and time consuming of the conventional options, with coiled tubing operations being generally less expensive than a drilling rig but more expensive and operationally complex than electric line operations when rotating down-hole equipment within a well.
Conventional methods and apparatus for separating or joining tubulars in a wellbore, such as the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 6,478,088B1, US20110209872A1, WO02/38343A2 and/or WO2010/120455A1, include tools that can be suspended from a cable or operated with on-board power to perform a downhole function, including the cutting of wellbore tubulars. However, these conventional methods and apparatus do not address the need for a cable-conveyable downhole assembly (16, 17, 25, 30-34, 31A-33A, 32B, 35, 43, 59, 180), which may include a tool subassembly with: a downhole motor or actuator (19, 36, 39, 44, 64) and one or more of an axially and transversely movable wheeled anti-rotation tool (37, 38, 175, 198), a wall securable hanger tool (18), a packer sealing tool (19, 49, 54, 89, 180), a rotary cutting tool (22, 23, 24, 161), a circumferential rotary conduit cutting tool (21, 24, 40, 41, 43, 65), an axial conduit cutting tool (20, 43), or combinations thereof, which can be usable for operating upon a portion of the deployment, peripheral and/or surrounding wall(s) of the subterranean borehole or conduit thereof, to form a space that can be usable for further operating upon the same or other wall(s). In addition, the conventional methods and apparatus do not address the need for displacing fluid against a subterranean disposed wall or placing a settable sealing material against a subterranean wall, using the formed space, as described in the embodiments of the present invention. As described herein, the present invention provides significant and distinct advantages and improvements over the existing teachings, as set forth above and which, as set forth below, are limited to the separation of milling of a downhole conduit(s), as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,478,088B1, US20110209872A1, WO02/38343A2 and WO2010/120455A1, because such applications do not purposely use higher and lower pressure ends of the borehole, or conduits thereof, to create and enlarge a usable space within a subterranean bore or conduit for other downhole operations, including fluid displacement and/or placement of a settable sealing material.
Additionally, other conventional teachings, including WO2007110/444, WO 2004/016901 A1 and GB2275282 A, address the boring or perforating of a hole in a conduit, wherein a sealant may be injected behind the conduit, but similarly do not address the forming or creation of a usable space, while suspended from a cable. Anti-rotation devices, such as those disclosed in US 20040112640 A1, are not axially and radially movable to rotationally hold and/or cut a subterranean borehole or conduit thereof, as described by Applicant. Hence, the existing art does not teach the methods and apparatus of the present invention, which include axially and/or radially and circumferentially cutting a conduit for the purposes of separating, weakening and/or cleaning a conduit, when forming or using the sealable spaces of the subterranean well. Accordingly, the present invention provides distinctive methods and apparatus for using and/or sealing a subterranean borehole and/or conduit thereof, which provide significant advantages over the existing art.
For example, as non-electrical braided wire and slick wire operations are comparable in cost and operational complexity to electrical wire line operations and have the ability to hoist heavy loads into and out of a well and/or to jar stuck equipment loose, if necessary. They also provide an opportunity to perform heavy work and to rotate downhole equipment using a positive displacement fluid motor for tasks in which torque requirements are less than those requiring a drilling rig.
Embodiments of the present invention provide the ability to rotate down-hole equipment within a well for applications such as cleaning well conduits and down-hole apparatuses, cutting well conduits and apparatuses, side-tracking wells, performing well abandonments, and maintaining and/or intervening in storage wells, casing drilling operations or any well operation where braided or slickline intervention is currently used or possible.
Specifically, embodiments of the present invention are placeable with braided and slick cable in subterranean wells, such as through use of remote operated vehicles in ocean pipelines, or by other methods, in large diameter conduits where fluid flow can be used to operate axially fixed and axially variable positive displacement fluid motors to drive rotary apparatuses, axial conduit cutting apparatuses and/or circumferential conduit cutting apparatuses to perform maintenance and/or intervention on one or more concentric conduits of well bores, platform risers, pipelines or other large bore conduits.
As drilling rig and coiled tubing operations are expensive and complex for maintenance of wells, chemical cleaners (e.g. for removing scale or debris) are often used when mechanical cleanup, using rotary brushes and other rotating devices including jetting equipment, would be more effective. Embodiments of the present invention enable alternatives for mechanical rotation to perform chemical cleaning of well conduits and down-hole apparatus.
Additionally, where axially movable brushes may be used with braided wire and slick wire applications to clean inoperable down-hole devices (e.g. subsurface safety valves, engagement nipples with debris in their recessed profiles and tarnished or corroded polished bore receptacles) a rotating brush, rotating polish mill and/or rotating jet washer may be better suited for cleaning and polishing such devices.
When producing zones deplete within a well, it is common practice to side-track the wells to other producible zones, if it is profitable to do so. The high cost of drilling rigs and the need to kill the well, so that tubular conduits can be removed and the well can be side-tracked, often prevent the side-tracks from occurring despite the presence of further producible zones, and the undeveloped zones are often left unrealized.
Embodiments of the present invention are also usable to reduce the cost of side-tracking a well, which can make previously marginal producible zones economical, given the lower cost of braided wire and slick wire applications.
Once economic production zones have been depleted at the end of a well's life, when it is least economic to invest money, the use of a high cost drilling rig is commonly necessary to remove heavy tubular conduits to enable placement of permanent cement plugs.
Embodiments of the present invention are further usable to reduce the cost of well abandonment, which can reduce the burden of abandonment and any related delays in abandonment of a particular well until sufficient work is available to perform an abandonment campaign, thus saving both time and expense.
In non-well applications, such as platform risers, pipelines or other large diameter conduits, few options exist for maintaining and/or intervening with conduits.
In instances where pigging of a conduit occurs within a riser or pipeline, embodiments of the present invention can be used in pigging operations to clean conduits or generally to intervene and/or maintain the conduits with rotary tools.
Alternatively, embodiments of the present invention can be pumped into deviated or horizontal wells, pipelines, risers or other large diameter conduits to perform rotary functions, then retrieved with an engaged wire line or by pumping a wire line engagement device to engage and retrieve the embodiments after performing the rotary function.
In pipelines, platform risers, well drilling operations, construction operations, intervention operations, maintenance operations and abandonment, where large diameter conduits are present, it is often critical to cut conduits down hole. Many different conventional apparatuses and methods exist for cutting conduits, including explosives, grit cutters, mechanical cutters and chemical cutters.
With the exception of grit cutters or various milling tools, conventional conduit cutters are not capable of cutting concentric and parallel conduits about the conduit in which they are disposed.
Additionally, while grit cutters or various milling tools are capable of cutting through multiple conduits, it is generally difficult to control the extent of a cut formed by a grit cutter or mill to confine the cut to a specific diameter with great accuracy.
Embodiments of the present invention, usable to cut conduits, can include low torque cutting apparatuses that cut concentric and parallel conduits to a selected diameter, while leaving surrounding conduits outside that diameter untouched so as to enable continued performance of the designed function of the conduits.
Within large conduit applications, such as those associated with wells and pipelines, inflatable sealing bridge plugs or packers are generally not capable of sealing across distances over twice the diameter through which they are placed, or are of insufficient sturdiness to withstand the sharp edges associated with milled and cut conduits.
Embodiments of the present invention can include a sealing rotating packer capable of sealing across distances over twice the placement diameter, and withstanding the sharp edges of milled and cut metals within a conduit surrounding the conduit through which the rotating packer was placed.
Electric line does not allow sufficient hoisting loads or jarring, and no conventional non-electrical braided wire or slick wire rotary cable tools exist. Thus, anchoring during conduit cutting and anchoring a rotating packer during use of non-electrical braided wire or slick wire is presently not possible. Embodiments of the present invention enable use of a rotary hanger that allows placement with any rotating shaft and removal with non-electrical braided wire or slick wire cables for supporting cutting apparatuses and rotating packer apparatuses.
Rotating hanger, rotating packer and conduit cutting embodiments can be driven using any shaft including, for example, shafts engaged to a fluid motor, combustion engine, pneumatic motor and/or electric motor.
A need exists for apparatuses and methods that remove the need for drilling rig and coiled tubing operations when performing routine conduit intervention and/or maintenance operations with rotating devices within well bores, platform risers, pipelines or other large bore conduits, thereby lowering the cost and reducing the complexity of such operations.
A need exists for apparatuses and methods that increase the hoisting capacity and jarring ability of braided and slick line operations and are usable to deploy rotary devices used during interventions and/or maintenance of well bores, platform risers, pipelines or other large bore conduits.
A need exists for apparatuses and methods for deploying wire line or cable tools in high pressure situations where grease heads do not offer sufficient sealing capacity against braided wires.
A need exists for apparatuses and methods that enable side-tracking of wells with casing drilling techniques in through tubing situations, with wire line operations capable of working within a pressured environment, removing the need to kill the well prior to side tracking, thereby reducing the cost and complexity of using coiled tubing for such side-tracks, thus increasing the life of a well where such lower cost apparatus and methods are capable of reaching trapped reserves.
A need exists for lower cost wire line rotating brushes, jetting and other associated conduit and equipment cleaning methods where conventional axially deployed brushes and chemical cleaning methods are incapable of effectively cleaning conduits and associated equipment.
A need exists for methods and apparatuses that provide improved cleaning of pipelines and risers that are not available through use of conventional pigging apparatuses and methods.
A need exists for apparatuses and methods that reduce the cost of well and pipeline abandonment.
A need exists for apparatuses and methods that enable pumping of rotating devices into deviated or horizontal wells, pipelines, risers or other large diameter conduits to perform rotary functions, and retrieval of the rotating devices with an engaged wire line or a wire line engagement device pumped into the conduit.
A need exists for apparatuses and methods usable to cut concentric and parallel conduits within a prescribed diameter within well bores, pipe lines, platform risers and other such large bore conduits.
A need exists for sealing bride plugs or packers that can expand to diameters over twice the inside diameter into which they are placed and withstand sharp metal edges associated with conduit milling and cutting operations.
A need exists for a hanger capable of setting, supporting rotation, supporting other apparatuses, and/or being jarred loose after it has served its function.
A need exists for rotating down-hole equipment to maintain and/or intervene in storage wells, casing drilling operations or any well operation where braided or slickline intervention is currently used or possible.
An object of the present invention is to overcome or alleviate at least some of the problems in the prior art or to address at least some of the above needs.